hang vs. hung

[Wilson Gray]

"Trail in the Sand," by One Hung Low

-Wilson

On 11/22/06, Dave Hause <dwhause at jobe.net> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dave Hause <dwhause at JOBE.NET>
> Subject:      Re: hang vs. hung
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I use that as "horses are hung, men are hanged."
> Dave Hause, dwhause at jobe.net
> Waynesville, MO
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <RonButters at AOL.COM>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2006 10:05 AM
> Subject: hang vs. hung
>
>
> A hoary joke that I first heard 50 years ago; "Did you hear about the
> plastic surgeon who hung himself?" When I first heard it, I didn't
> understand it
> because I didn't realize that "Man is he hung!" meant his penis was
> unusually
> large--AND because "hung by the neck until dead" seemed perfectly
> grammatical to
> me. "I'll be hanged" was an expression that I did not associate with causing
> someone to die by the rope-around-the-neck method.
>
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Sam Clemens

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